Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín has confirmed that the party is “considering running a candidate for the presidential election this year,” though he will probably not be running himself.
Speaking to reporters during a media exchange at Leinster House today, Tóibín said the party was also working on a bill to give Northern voters a say in future presidential elections.
“We’re also looking to create a bill which would give voting rights to the people of the north of Ireland in that presidential election,” he said.
“We hope to get that tabled as soon as possible.”
He criticised the current rules, saying it was “incredible” that Northern Irish citizens could run for president but were barred from voting.
“We believe it’s incredible that people from the North—Irish citizens—can stand for the presidential election but can’t vote in that presidential election,” he said.
Tóibín pointed to the party’s recent electoral performance and referendum involvement as signs of its growing role in Irish politics.
“The last general election saw Aontú increase its votes more than any other political party in that election, which is a significant plus,” he said. “It’s also seen Aontú play significant roles in the last referendums.”
He argued that a section of the electorate currently feels politically unrepresented.
“We believe that there’s a significant section of the Irish population who feel that they’re not represented by the political establishment at the moment,” he said. “We believe that there’s a good chance that we can best represent those individuals.”
While acknowledging the difficulty of securing a nomination, he said the party had begun talks with potential supporters.
“It’s going to be difficult for us to get a nomination for that,” he said. “The councils look like they’re pretty locked up in terms of the three large establishment political parties.
“But there would be at least 20 members in here who would have either similar views to ourselves or would at least, I think, be able to facilitate a representative of Aontú standing in that election,” he added.
“It remains to be seen will that happen.”
He said discussions with those members were already underway.
“We’re starting the conversations with those individuals at the moment,” he said. “But I think it would be a good thing for democracy if we had an Aontú candidate for the presidential election.”
Asked if the party had a candidate in mind, Tóibín said it was too early to name names.
“We are considering those,” he said.
“But we’re way too early, to be honest, to name anybody in a public fashion.”
Asked about government concerns that giving voting rights to Northern voters would benefit Sinn Féin, he said democratic rights should not depend on electoral outcomes.
“The whole idea that democracy is okay if you can decide the result at the end of it is a nonsense idea,” he said.
He added that the conversation on unity was more advanced in the North than in the South.
“We are a 32-county party. We want to see Irish unity,” he said. “In actual fact, I think that the Irish unity debate really hasn’t started properly in the South of Ireland.”
“It’s far stronger in the North of Ireland because demographics have changed significantly, and also Brexit has forced a lot of people in kind of middle unionism to think of the potential for Irish unity,” he continued.
Tóibín said his party had built relationships with some unionists who were open to discussing unity with Aontú, but not with Sinn Féin.
“We’ve had people from a unionist community say to us in Aontú that they would discuss Irish unity with us,” he said. “They wouldn’t discuss it with Sinn Féin, from what they believe is the damage that Sinn Féin has done to their community in the past.”
He said the outcome of any election with an all-island franchise was not a foregone conclusion.
“It’s not a foregone conclusion in relation to who would win it,” he said. “There’s a lot of nationalists and republicans in the North of Ireland who are frustrated with Sinn Féin at the moment.”
“We’ve seen their vote fall significantly in the last general election here in the South,” he added.
He urged larger parties to expand into Northern Ireland if they wanted to influence future elections.
“If the government really wants to influence future all-Ireland elections, the best way for the establishment parties to do that is to organise in the six counties like we are,” he said. “A small political party that has had few resources over the last six years.”
“If Aontú can do it, why can’t Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil do it?”
Asked if he would be running for president himself, Tóibín indicated it was “unlikely.”
“I can confirm that it’s highly unlikely that it’ll be myself that’ll run for the Áras,” he said.
“I’ve run for enough elections in the last 12 months now, to be honest.”
Under current law, candidates for the Irish presidency must be nominated either by at least 20 Oireachtas members or by at least four local authorities. While parties such as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael historically have strong control over councils, smaller parties often rely on persuading independents or cross-party councillors to support their bid.